 The 1613 quarto was printed by Thomas Creede for the bookseller Richard Hawkins.Cary's drama belongs to the subgenre of the Senecan revenge tragedy, which is made apparent by the presence of the classical style chorus that comments on the plot of the play, the lack of violence onstage, and "long, sententious speeches".The primary sources for the play are "The Wars of the Jews" and "The Antiquities of the Jews" by Josephus, which Cary used in Thomas Lodge's 1602 translation.